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The Kaffoan culture has strictly defined gender roles but you should not take this to mean that women are powerless. What it means is that men have a realm of power that women are not welcome within and women also have a realm of power that men are not welcome within.

The most visible sign of this gender divide is in the council structure of the Kaffoan Province. Unlike other su'ndari provinces Kaffoa has two councils - The Kaffoan Council and the Matriarch's Circle. The Kaffoan Council has final say on all votes and is considerably more powerful than the Matriarchs Circle on the surface but when the council structure is studied in more depth these counsils are deeply interwoven to the point where almost nothing can happen without the approval of both council groups.

In everyday society the gender divide is not something that has been well defined - society simply knows if something is wrong or right and it is society and tradition rather than law which creates and enforces the divides. Most Kaffoan women simply can't understand why any woman would want things to be different to what they already have. Women are not hidden away from outside eyes or restricted in their day to day activities. The Kaffoan habit of going veiled in the outdoors is a matter of fashion and practicality rather than modesty and there is art showing women (such as Kellsora) in both veiled and unveiled states everywhere within the province. There is currently a trend towards forbidding women (and men) of low status or immodest virtue the use of the veil as it is has become to be seen as a symbol of social status.

The divide can roughly be described as follows:

If it is something based within the home which involves children and women then it is part of the womanly sphere. Arranging marriages is thus entirely handled by the Kaffoan Matriarchs.

If it is something that involves travel away from the House or it is something that involves dealing with men then it is part of the masculine sphere. Women are thus barred from military service, hunting and most merchant vocations whilst Men are responsible for most of the day to day politics.

Tasks that involve being outside the central structure/building of the House but which take place within the boundaries of the Houses properties are usually acceptable for women. Both women and men tend the fields for example although there is a divide between the types of jobs that each gender tends to handle upon each farm. Likewise a crafting business will often be open to both genders with the exception of jobs considered too taxing for women such as metalworking.